2.3.2. Networking of control

2. Development of modern industrial automation

be further expanded.

2 New Trends in Industrial Automation

2.3. Networking

2.1. Vertical integration of automation system

demand for data analysis-based services.

2.3.1. Standard open communication network

With the large-scale, continuous, and highly parameterized industrial devices, the requirements for industrial automation systems are constantly increasing. In the era of intellectualization, in order to independently meet the requirements of safe start-stop, stable operation, optimal operation, and fault handling of industrial production systems, it is necessary to seamlessly integrate various instrument products and manufacturing systems into a coordinated information system. Therefore, unified control platform and smooth communication network are the basis of automation in the era of intellectualization. Industrial automation will

Intelligence requires vertical integration of automation system with lower field sensing and data acquisition layer and upper enterprise management system. When the automation system runs, from machine operation, energy use, variable processing to material use, etc., controllers, sensors, and other equipment will produce a large amount of data in every link of the production process. The data from the production site will exceed the business data generated by the company in a few years. It is imperative to combine all the data from the plant operating systems with the information from business applications to create operational intelligence, especially remote maintenance solutions and cloud-based services, to meet the increasing

Through intellectualization and its supporting technologies, the control, drive, and lowvoltage distribution systems are deeply integrated to form a unified platform for automation integration, which can provide support for scalable motion and machine control in a single programming environment. This integration reduces data storage scale, while the openness of the control platform ensures easy integration with third-party components. How to deal with the data transmission, information sharing, coordinated operation, and autonomous control between these instruments and systems to meet user requirements has become a very important technology—system integration technology. In addition, the visualization and information software used on each machine needs to be standardized. At this time, the application technology aiming at the overall solutions and the application software represented by optimization software and advanced control algorithm have also become the new development trends.

Vertical and horizontal integration of automation systems requires a unified network infrastructure to establish a standard open communication network to realize the mutual communication between all devices in the system. In the future, network switching equipment will be

2.2. Horizontal integration of intellectualization-driven automation system

There are two components of control system network, namely distributed control system (DCS) and fieldbus control and industrial Ethernet system (FCS). These systems clearly reflect the development direction of the current networked control system, namely, distribution, network integration, and node intelligence. In the development process, Ethernet slowly monopolizes the local area communication in the computer field, and Ethernet and fast Ethernet are gradually unified by the upper communication of process control network. The application of networked control system to Ethernet has become a trend, and the interoperability, digital interconnection, and high open network performance of Ethernet are also in line with the characteristics of fieldbus network control. Therefore, industrial Ethernet has become an important direction for the future development of fieldbus technology.

## 2.4. Mobile technology

Mobile technology makes management and work flexible. With access to production data and information on tablets or smartphones, factory managers and employees can "move" and communicate with production systems anytime, anywhere. In the future, cloud technology will be used to process and store data from all over the world, and real-time data will be used everywhere. People can contact any relevant personnel anytime, anywhere, and share experience and knowledge with colleagues around the world to solve business problems. No matter where the technical experts are, the call center representatives can consult them in real time, and the experts themselves can visit the history of equipment services and other devices anywhere in the world, as well as check factory updates and other consulting.

#### 2.5. Virtualization

Virtualization reduces dependence on physical servers and other hardware while saving energy costs for factories. Virtualization technology can also improve machine reliability, create low-cost, high-availability backup solutions, and allow multiple instances of the operating system to run on a single hardware. The latest DCS systems have applied virtualized servers to achieve faster processing speed and lower life cycle costs.
